Donate now to keep ChildLine open 24 hours a day
Children ringing ChildLine in the early hours of the morning after being abused or running away from desperate situations at home may soon find that the lines are closed.

Heavy demands on the public’s compassion this year have contributed to an acute shortage of funds to run the 24-hour service ChildLine has provided for almost 20 years. We are now facing tough decisions about where to make cuts, unless the public respond generously to our emergency appeal.

Why is ChildLine having an emergency appeal?
In order to keep our daytime and evening services running, ChildLine may have to shut its crucial night service, which relies on paid staff rather than volunteers. The night service counsels fewer children, but they are often in desperate need.

Some of the children who have been helped by ChildLine’s vital night service
Many of the children who call ChildLine late at night are in great danger. As Esther Rantzen says: “In the loneliest hours of the night we have called ambulances for children who have tried to commit suicide, found shelter for children thrown out of their homes and called the police or social service for children who can no longer live with the abuse they’ve endured."